Yugoslav tribunal upholds sentences against Bosnian Serbs

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - U.N. judges on Thursday upheld the convictions and 22-year sentences of two former Bosnian Serb security officers for war crimes during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.

Former high ranking Bosnian Serb official Stojan Zupljanin (L) shakes hands with his lawyer in the court room as he attends trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague March 27, 2013. REUTERS/Michael Kooren

The appeals chamber at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia said Mico Stanisic and Stojan Zupljanin were “criminally responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity” in 1992, during the Bosnian war.

The men had appealed the outcome of their trial which began in 2009.

More than 100,000 people were killed during the war in Bosnia, the bloodiest of the conflicts that followed the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

The tribunal has indicted 161 people for serious violations of humanitarian law committed on the territory of the former Yugoslavia since 1991, including genocide. Proceedings are currently ongoing for eight accused.